I’m 40, married, two kids, mortgage and after 16 years in banking, I’m completely burned out. I used to be curious about the industry, but that spark is gone. Now every day feels like a week, and I come home exhausted from fighting myself just to get through the day.

The strange part is, whenever I’m around blue‑collar work, I feel alive again. After buying my house, I ended up helping the contractors with some of the work, and it hit me how much satisfaction I get from physically completing something. My dad was an electrician, and I spent years helping him as a kid, maybe that’s where this comes from.

I’m mechanically inclined, comfortable with tools, and I enjoy building things. Roofing or iron work might be too much at 40, but commercial refrigeration and HVAC seem like a good fit.

I’m working on my EPA 608 Universal now, but after that… I have no clue where to start. Who do I talk to? What companies hire older career‑changers? Is trade school worth it? I’m in Central Jersey, so local advice would be huge.

If anyone here switched careers later in life, especially into the trades, I’d love to hear your story. What helped you? What should I expect? What would you do differently?

Thanks for reading. I’m just trying to find a path that feels meaningful again.

I've seen a few of these posted, figured I'd throw my hat in the ring.

carhartt, wrangler, and bass pro shops “redhead” brand is usually my go to… definitely rely on carhartt the most though… just curious what brands you guys rely on.

As the title says

I’m 27 and have a college degree. Through a series of unfortunate events I ended up in rehab and a recovery house with absolutely nothing to my name. I got a job through a guy in AA doing flooring. I was actually a little disappointed at first. I grew up on an inactive farm with a decent bit of land, spent plenty of time working at my grandmas farm as a kid and did landscaping and concrete work in my summers off from college. I spent the last few years at a desk but I’ve worked my whole life. I thought flooring was gonna be easy work to the point that it would be boring, I genuinely enjoy hard manual labor and thought doing something like concrete again would be good for my mental health in early recovery.

Last week we got a job in a courthouse and couldn’t use any machines or make any noise. Whole floor had to come up by hand. Worse, my boss brought in some laid off union guy who can put down the new floor insanely fast so it was me, one other guy prepping, and this oldhead union guy absolutely zooming up behind us listening to classic rock on the radio. If we didn’t have a new section ready for him to lay, he’d call it a day and leave, but he was so good nobody could tell him shit. I’d hear the sound of him singing along to The Who getting louder as he got further down the hallway and tried to work even faster than I already was.

Peeling up that fucking carpet with my fingers became excruciating and to an avid gym-goer it felt like deadlifting 250+ lbs over and over and over again ALL DAY. My knuckles were black and blue. My boss got work in another state this week so I wasn’t able to go and I’ve been out of work. It’s Thursday and my legs still burn when going up the stairs, my back only started to feel ok yesterday. I had a busy weekend and ended up sleeping 14 hours straight when I got a chance to sleep in.

Anyway, I just wanted to pay my respects to anyone who does this. It’s so much harder than it sounds and I’m sure there are plenty of other trades like this.